Twenty-six years. That’s how long I’ve sat in this chair as an editor for this publication. Long enough that a reader or two out there was born right about the time I took the job, in January 2000, first as editor in chief of PC FAB, to which my then-boss Pete Waddell soon added Printed Circuit Design, and then, in 2005, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. (Now I really feel old. Thanks a lot.)
I mention it not to be sentimental – though I’ll ask your indulgence for a little of that – but because this is the last editorial I’ll write from this vantage point. After more than a quarter century, I’m handing over the keys. More on that in a moment.
First, a confession. Across all those years and all those issues, I never missed one. Over 318 consecutive issues (which must be an industry record, however dubious), not a single deadline was skipped. I wrote editorials on three continents and over two oceans. I wrote one on my honeymoon. And I wrote one from a hospital recovery room the day my first son was born – because with little else to do, I’d started counting the circuit boards in the equipment around me. (I’m a nerd. I have the receipts.)
When I look back at what filled this space, certain subjects kept circling back, like an aircraft stuck in a holding pattern. The geography of our industry rearranged itself under our feet. We were proud to publish the annual NTI-100 ranking of the world’s largest fabricators, and year after year the chart told the same uncomfortable story: the center of gravity moved east, and the number of North American and European names near the top dwindled to a precious few. I spent a lot of ink arguing that bigger isn’t always better – and that in the rush to get big, we shouldn’t forget the little guys, the job shops and prototype houses and quickturn specialists where this industry has always done some of its most inventive work.
I worried, too, about who comes next. I called it the juniority problem: an industry graying faster than it hires, institutional knowledge walking out the door at retirement parties, and not enough young engineers walking in to replace it. If I nagged you about mentoring, about writing down what’s in your head before it leaves the building, about making room for the next generation, well, I’d do it all again.
I wrote more than my share about standards and certification, occasionally from the odd vantage point of someone who was actually in the room when the first designer certification program was drafted back in the 1990s. I believed then, and believe now, that a credential is only as good as the body of knowledge – and the practitioners – standing behind it.
And then there was the technology itself, forever promising to make us obsolete and never quite getting around to it. When the AI-and-CAD evangelists insisted the machines were about to replace the designers, I tended to answer the way the genuinely smart people in the field do: no, and no. The tools change. The craft endures.
Running through all of it was one thread I kept tugging at: progress means change. I borrowed that line years ago and never gave it back. Our industry has changed almost beyond recognition since 2000, and yet the questions are stubbornly familiar — how to build it better, faster, closer to home, and with the people we’ll need tomorrow.
The biggest change of all came in January 2022, when we sold the magazines, the trade shows, the newsletters and the rest to the Printed Circuit Engineering Association – an organization I now have the privilege of leading. Bringing these properties under PCEA’s roof was, I’m convinced, the right home, and the work here will keep me plenty busy. So while I’m stepping out of the editor’s chair, I’m not going far. You’ll still find me at PCB West and PCB East, still working on training programs for designers and engineers, still meddling in the affairs of an industry I love.
Which brings me, at last, to the person taking over. Andy Shaughnessy is assuming the role of content architect for PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, and I can think of no one better to steward these pages. Andy has spent decades covering this industry with the curiosity and the plain affection it deserves. He knows the people, he knows the technology, and – just as important – he knows the difference between a press release and a story. The publication is in very good hands.
As for me, I’ll sign off the way I should: with gratitude. To Pete, who handed a young writer a chair and let him keep it. To the engineers, designers, fabricators and assemblers who answered my calls, returned my emails, argued with me, corrected me, and trusted me with their work. To the colleagues who caught my typos and my worst ideas. And to you, the reader, who let me onto your desk a dozen times a year for more than two decades. It has been the honor of my professional life.
While this column is named The Route, an homage to the newsletter I developed for Dieter Bergman and Gary Ferrari on behalf of the Designers Council more than 30 years ago, I named the predecessor Caveat Lector, meaning let the reader beware. You always did. And you kept me honest for it.
Thank you.
Mike Buetow is president of PCEA (pcea.net); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
